Wonderstruck
by les-tveiterables
Summary: Modern University A/U. Eponine Thenardier and all of her friends are seniors at Valjean University. She is best friends with Gabe Enjolras. When things take a downward spiral, Enjolras finds he is falling. Falling for the one he swore he never would. Established E/É friendship, Enjolras is slightly OOC. {ON TEMP. HIATUS - I'LL BE BACK SOON!}
1. (Un) Lucky in Love

Éponine Thénardier turned the corner of Valjean University so quickly; she ran face-first into Gabe Enjolras, who stared down at her, grinning.

"Morning 'Ponine!" He only smiled when he was with her.

Eponine almost growled in reply, obviously still half-asleep. "Shut up, and don't talk to me until I've had caffeine." she muttered under her breath. Only when she looked up, did she notice her best friend there.

"Oh, sorry! I thought you were someone else." Éponine sputtered, slightly embarrassed.

"That's fine, considering you obviously haven't had caffeine yet." Enjolras teased. He only teased when he was with her.

The bell went off.

"They really need to tone the bell down a bit. if I hear that bell that loud again it's going to shatter my eardrums!" Éponine complained as she headed to class.

Enjolras went his own way, in an attempt to rediscover where they left the political science room. You forget a lot of things after a while of slacking.

Eponine managed to slog through morning classes, and charged towards the cafeteria as soon as her lunch break started, hoping that the University didn't adopt that pathetic no-caffeine policy that she heard of in the news. If they did, she thought, at least it would be her last year here. She was double-majoring in Art and Philosophy, while Gabe - who more often than not went by only his last name, Enjolras - was majoring in Political Science. After scoring a cup of coffee, she went to sit down with Enjolras and the rest of their friends, Courfeyrac, Combeferre, Joly, Grantaire, Jehan, and a few others. They were like a huge posse of rowdy, rambunctious ten-year-olds, but in university. They had just gotten back from their break, and today was the first day of the fall term, which didn't help the problem.

"Heyyyy it's Pony!" shouted Grantaire, even though she was just beside him.

"I told you a million times before, DO NOT CALL ME PONY!" She grumbled, slamming him upside his head with a textbook, then chugging the last drops of her coffee.

They all chatted for a while, until it was time for the everybody to go back to class. Eponine was was slowly trodding up the stairs to get to her philosophy class, when she felt a hand gripping her shoulder. She turned around, and there stood Marius.

Eponine blushed. "Ermm, h-hi Marius! How are you doing?" she stuttered.

"Hey Ep!" Marius replied, his face aglow. "Did you see that beautiful girl?"

Eponine's face sank. "Uh, no..."

Marius sighed, but continued. "You see, I saw the perfect girl today, and I think that I'm in love with her. Can you give her this letter? I think her name's something like Colette."

_Colette? He couldn't possibly mean Cosette, could he?_ Eponine thought. She felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Problem was, she has been in love with Marius Pontmercy since middle school, and knew that they could never be, seeing to the fact that he thought of her as "just a friend", but she never abandoned hope. But now, this was it. He would never love her. _Well, if I could never be happy, it doesn't mean that Marius can't be..._

She straightened her back, plastered a smile on her face, and agreed. "Sure! I definitely will!"

"You're the best friend ever, Eponine!" Marius exclaimed a little too loudly, hugging her tightly. She buried her face in his neck,soaking in his scent, and wished the moment would last forever.

But, alas, it ended too soon, and Marius went on his way. "You will never know how much I love you" she whispered, as soon as she was out of earshot.

The only one heard it was Gabe Enjolras.

**A/U: HAI YOU GUYS! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my fic. I don't know how much/how often I'll be able to upload, because my Provincial Achievement Tests are coming up, and as soon as school lets out, I'm going out of town to visit family for most of July, plus it took me over 4 hours to write under 650 words. So sorry in advance! Also, I haven't gone to a university before, nor have I ever visited one, and I don't know how they work, so excuse me if any of this is inaccurate. Remember to review!****  
**

**xoxo,**

**Daisy**


	2. Feelings

Enjolras shook his head at Éponine's remark. Why, oh why did his best friend have to love that idiot? Not to get him wrong, Marius was very smart, you had to give him that, but sometimes he acted like a child, somewhat selfish and oblivious to everything around him.

He felt the need to protect Éponine, to shelter her from everything the world has ever done to her, but he knew she wouldn't like that, she was self-sufficient and hated pity. She had been through so much in her life already, so why did she love Marius when she knew she was only going to hurt herself? Why did she love Marius when she could love Enjolras?

He quickly shook his head, and tried to clear his mind. Éponine would never love him, not that he tried to care. He only had classes in the morning today, and had the rest of the afternoon off, so he decided to pop by the best hangout in town, the Café Musain, to just sit and study for a bit.

Enjolras pored over his political science textbook, but his mind kept drifting to Éponine. He thought of the cruel life she lived (her parents being criminals, they could really care less about her wellbeing), and all the abuse she got from her father and his friend Montparnasse. Montparnasse was their age and lived in the same circumstances as Éponine, but, unlike her, the experience made him turn bitter and violent. Then he pondered over Marius. Why would she love him? She deserved so much more than what he had. But he couldn't be jealous, could he? Of course not, he was Enjolras. Minus Éponine and his good friend Combeferre, he kept his feelings to himself.

By the time Enjolras left the Musain, classes would have let out, so he decided to head back to his dorm that he shared with Éponine.

Enjolras entered the small dorm, to the heart-wrenching sound of racking sobs coming from Éponine's room. He gently pushed the door open, so as to not startle her. She was almost a sorry sight, sobbing into her pillow, phone in hand, which was playing some sad Taylor Swift song.

If Eponine was this worked up, this was serious. Just like himself, she was a master of hiding her feelings, she thought that no one cared. The only time he ever saw her cry was when her sister Azelma ran away from home, and even then she only talked about it to Enjolras and Combeferre.

Enjolras inched his way towards the bed, and sat beside the limp, vulnerable figure wailing into her pillow. _Is this seriously about Marius?_ He smoothed her hair back with his hand, and found himself asking her "'Ponine, why are you crying?", even though he very well knew the answer.

She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face, then broke Enjolras' intense gaze. "I'm so stupid!" she bawled. "I knew he would never like me, but I went and fell in love with him! I followed him around like a lost puppy, doing him favors, and at the end of the day, I'm 'Just A Friend', so he says!" She laughed bitterly. "Hah! I knew it was bound to happen to scum like me. I should just go and kill myself."

Enjolras absorbed every word she said, appalled. How could one person hate themself that much?

He didn't know what so say, so he just opened his arms, and, as if on cue, Eponine sat up and buried herself in his arms, still sobbing. Enjolras just pressed his lips to her forehead, and they stayed like that until Eponine couldn't shed another tear.

When he finally looked at the clock, Enjolras mentioned "Hey, Graceland's on. Wanna watch?" Eponine slowly nodded, and they made their way to Enjolras' room, the only place in the dorm with a television. Enjolras sat up against the headboard, with Eponine cuddled into his chest. His arms were wrapped around her torso protectively, as if it would keep all the bad memories of what happened earlier that day from coming back to her.

Eponine fell asleep almost immediately in Enjolras' arms, and he didn't bother moving her, so she wouldn't wake up. As he finished watching the episode, he felt a strange feeling brewing in the pit of his stomach,and didn't know what it was.

Jealousy? Maybe. Protectiveness? Perhaps. Anger? Who knows. All that he cared was that he wasn't in love. No matter how much he felt like he was, he would NOT fall in love with Eponine Thenardier.

He'd ask Combeferre in the morning.


	3. Is Enjolras in love at last?

**A/N: Hey my lovelies! Long time no see...I know. I have a HUGE case of writer's block, and don't know where to go with this story - might just make it a four-shot. If not, I'm depending on your ideas, so PM me. Anyways, MAJOR MAJOR developments in this chapter... I was going to divide into 2 chapters, but there wasn't any very good line breaks in this one, so you will have to put up with one insanely long chapter! Also, kudos to my buddies 24601yourparolesbegun and lesmizmaniac for helping me write this chapter! I love you guys!**

Enjolras woke up with Éponine in his arms. Looking at the clock, he almost had a panic attack. 7:30 AM. He needed to get going.

"Éponine, wake up!" Enjolras urged while trying to rouse the sleepy girl.

She lifted her head off of his chest. There were still tear stains streaking her face.

"Where am I?" Éponine asked, feeling a little disoriented.

"You are in my room, in our dorm. Sorry to sound rude, but I really need to get going." he urged.

"Well, then leave!" she shot back irritably. Éponine was NOT a morning person.

"What that meant was, please get off of me because you are pretty much sitting in my lap and we both have classes in 30 minutes." he replied sarcastically.

Éponine slowly rolled out of Enjolras' grasp, going a little too far to the left, earning herself a large THUMP on the hard floor. "Happy now?" she groaned.

"Fantastic, but wasn't that a tad unnecessary?

"Well, _excusez-moi_ for being in unbearable agony!"

Enjolras promptly ignored her, and they both got up to prepare for class.

He arrived on campus with 10 minutes to spare, Enjolras met up with the rest of his friends, who called themselves _Les Amis_, french for simply "The Friends". Among the chatter, Combeferre asked Enjolras what he'd been up to last night. His friend sighed. "Well, it's a long story that I don't really want to tell." Combeferre pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, giving Enjolras a questioning look.

"Okay, I'll tell you, but promise not to tell anyone else. WhenIcamebackfromtheMusainlastnightEponinewascryin goverMariusandIhadnoideawhatthehecktodosoIjusthugg edherandIkissedherbutnotinaromanticwaybevausewerej ustfriendsthenwefellasleepandIdontknowwhatswrongwi thme."

All of the _Amis_ were then listening to him then, not used to Enjolras being so stressed and confused. "Geez, you guys! I'm fine, why are you looking at me like I've turned into some sort of alien?"

They all gaped at him for a while longer, then Courfeyrac was the one to break the silence. "Well, I don't know about the rest of us, but all I heard was that you slept with 'Ponine. What is going on?"

"Forget it." Enjolras muttered, running off before any of the rest of them could realize what he even said. They glanced at each other, before all eyes went to Combeferre.

"What do you expect me to do about it?" He groaned. "He's obviously quite pissed at Marius for breaking 'Ponine's heart, he just wants her to be happy, be it with him or not

They all knew that Éponine was in love with Marius, and they also knew that, as much as he hated to admit it, Enjolras was clearly in love with Éponine. They all knew how his eyes lit up just a little when Éponine's face popped onto his caller ID, they all knew how whenever she hugged him for being the "best friend ever," it took all he had not to just take her face in his hands, and kiss her with all he had. All they needed to do was to get him to admit it to himself.

"Well, 'Ferre, you're the closest to Enjolras out of all of us, so, it's on you from here!" Joly remarked. Combeferre nodded, and spun off in the direction that Enjolras left in.

He couldn't track Enjolras down until lunch, when he found his friend sitting in the library, head buried in his hands. "Woah, what's wrong, 'Jolras?" He questioned.

"What's wrong, you ask?" he replied sadly,"What's wrong is that I might be in -well, I don't even know!- with a girl who's in love with one of my friends, that friend is oblivious to her feelings and when I'm around her I can barely stay 'civilized'!"

Combeferre gave him an odd look. "That didn't make much sense.."

"And, now I'm not making any sense!" he groaned frustratedly .

"Okay then, my dorm, 6 tonight." Combeferre replied, and they both left.

Almost all of _Les Amis_ assembled themselves at Combeferre and Courfeyrac's dorm that evening, because when Combeferre told Courfeyrac that Enjolras was coming, he accidentally-on-purpose let it slip to the rest that the 'marble man' is coming over, do they want to see him when he's not as flawless as usual.

Enjolras appeared at their dorm promptly at 6, only to see _Les Amis_ huddled in little clumps all over the living room. As if on cue, they all turned their heads to stare at him.

"Look, it's Enjy!" Cried an over-exited Courfeyrac. Enjolras rolled his eyes, and glared at Combeferre, wondering why he asked everybody else over. Combeferre shrugged and gestured at Courfeyrac, as Enjolras nodded slowly.

"Let's do something, I am so bored!" Cried a whining Bossuet.

"Okay, let's do something fun!" Courfeyrac agreed, as everybody attempted to sit on the 2 small loveseats located on either side of the living room. "How about truth or dare?"

The suggestion was greeted by cheers of agreement and anticipation, minus Enjolras and Combeferre, who groaned inwardly. Weren't they getting a tiny bit too old for this?

"Alright! Since I came up with the idea, I'll ask first," Courfeyrac started. "ENJOLRAS, m'man, interrogation or humiliation?"

"First of all, what did I say about calling me m'man?"

"Sorry,"

"Okay, fine, I'll choose interrogation. I'll probably end up losing my half-decent reputation either way." Enjolras sighed.

Courfeyrac looked around mischeivously. "Okay, we've all been wondering this: What the HECK is with you? You've barely talked all day, and you're so distant all of a sudden! Where's the Enjolras we all know?"

Enjolras sighed. He might as well tell them, after all they were his best friends, and what did he have to lose, really? "Okay, this is a long one. It started when 'Ponine sort of fell for Marius that few years ago. For some reason, I didn't like the fact that she wanted to be with him, because I knew that he would end up hurting her. That is what happened yesterday. Marius had the nerve to go up to Éponine - MY Éponine - and declare that he was in love with some blonde that he'd never met, and asked her to deliver a letter to this mystery girl. And she lost it.

The whole time, I was just sitting back, watching her bawl her eyes out over some guy who she knew she wouldn't get in the first place. What could I do? I just sat there with her until she stopped crying, and we fell asleep in my bed." Enjolras sighed once more.

"And how do you feel about it?" Combeferre asked.

"I don't know. It seems like even if she does know that it'll hurt her in the long run, she dives head first into whatever it could be. It's killing her. And at the end of the day, I'm always there to dry up her tears and tell her it's gonna be okay, even though I don't even know if it is. She's the strongest woman I've ever known, spending her whole life putting up with all this crap that she doesn't deserve, yet she just runs toward more pain every time the opportunity comes. She's beautiful, but she never lets herself come to realize it."

Everybody was flabbergasted by Enjolras' deep understanding of the stubborn, pitiless girl they all knew. Minus Combeferre, who had one more question.

"Enjolras, are you in love with Éponine?"

**A/N: CLIFFHANGER! Mhuahahahaha...**

**P.S. Like my new username?**

**Stay Revolutionary, Daisy 3**


	4. Confessions

**A/N: Hey guys! I just got back from visiting relatives on, like, the other side of the country, so it's been a while! Also, I strongly reccomend that you go back and read the last paragraph or so of chapter 3, because this takes off right after where it left off. If you have time to spare, you can also go back and re-read the whole entire story, because I went through and re-read/revised/re-wrote it, and some parts that I added/took out change the course of the story a little, so if you don't want to get confused...**

**Anyways, enjoy!**

"Of course not! What would make you think that? Seriously, do you guys know how stupid it would be for me to be in love with the one person who's always been there for me? That's retarded! I've never even remotely liked a girl my whole life!" Enjolras cut in.

Courfeyrac and Combeferre exchanged a knowing glance. They've known Enjolras for their whole lives - longer than any of the Amis, and even Éponine. Through the while, they came to realize that he isn't as love-immune as he makes out to be.

"I might have believed you if you didn't respond so defensively within one millisecond of my asking. Nice try, though. Face it, Enjolras, you're pretty much in love with Éponine." Combeferre chuckled.

For the first time in his life, Enjolras was speechless, so he just looked at his feet and blushed, much to the amusement of his friends, who were now hooting and hollering, to his humiliation. At the same moment, Éponine burst through the door.

"I'm over it." She said, throwing her bag on the floor.

"What?" Courfeyrac asked, startled.

"I'm over Marius friggin' Pontmercy. It's clear he doesn't give a crap about me, so why should I give a crap about him? There's no chance anything will ever happen with us anyways, so why bother!" She said forcefully.

Everybody jerked their heads to look at her, then at Enjolras, just in time to catch a glimpse of what could almost be hope twinkle in his eyes, before it disappeared after hearing what else she had to say.

"I mean, I honestly get why he would choose someone like that bleach-blonde two-a-penny thing. It's obvious she's prettier than me, she's smarter than me, she's richer than me, and I'm just old 'Ponine. Nothing special about me."

Enjolras stared at her, wide-eyed. "Éponine, don't you dare say such a thing!" He exclaimed, standing up to face her. "You're brave, intelligent, funny, and just simply amazing, and you always will be in my eyes." Taking her hands, he added, "You're the most beautiful woman ever met, and don't you ever forget it."

Éponine wrapped her arms around Enjolras' neck and squeezed him tight. "You always know what to say, Enjy, even if it isn't necessarily true."

"C'mon 'Ponine, you know I don't say anything that I don't mean." He blushed, breaking the hug. "Anyways, we should be going. I have a test in three and a half weeks. I need to study."

"Seriously Enjy? A test in three and a half weeks and you feel the need to study? With that memory of yours, you'll only need to read your notes four times over and have them memorized word for word!" Éponine muttered, adding in an eye-roll for emphasis.

"Actually, I already do have them memorized!" He said sheepishly.

"Holy crap, Enjolras!" Éponine marvelled, then snapped back to normal. "We can stay for a while, can't we?"

"No we can't, Éponine, I still need to study!"

...And so started one of the many famous E vs. É quarrels. About halfway in, around the time their argument about wether to leave or not turned into a full-fledged fight about something along the line of college scholarships, Grantaire muttered something about sexual tension, and Courfeyrac had the nerve to make a heart with his hands, singing quietly, "Enjolras and Éponine sittin' in a tree - G!"

His singing caught the attention of the argumentative best friends, and Éponine shot her most intimidating glare in his direction, almost shouting, "SERIOUSLY, Courf? Like, how often do I need to tell you that we're JUST FRIENDS. JUST FRIENDS, alright? Nothing like that will ever happen between us, if I have anything to do with it. Isn't that right, Enj?"

Enjolras' face visibly drooped, but he muttered, "Yep. Just friends, that's us." before walking out the door with her.

"Seriously. Enj. Why don't you come to terms with the fact that you're in love with Éponine? You made it blindingly obvious last night." Courfeyrac pressed his friend, frustrated.

"Because I don't! I'm not anywhere near loving her! How do you even think that?" Enjolras insisted.

"Yeah, try convincing the person who watched you pretty much blow up with jealousy every time 'Ponine mentioned Marius, and saw that blush that mysteriously appears on your face every time she comes into some sort of physical contact with you. You contradict every bad thing she says about herself, and I may or may not noticed that you looked a teensy bit -AHEM- turned on when Éponine wore that little polka-dot bikini at Grantaire's pool party last summer."

"I wasn't turned on!"

"Try telling THAT to your genitals. You were so."

"Okay, maybe she DID look gorgeous that day, but has it ever occurred to you that maybe I don't WANT to come to terms with what I'm feeling? Ever thought of that?"

"WHY in the WORLD would you not want to realize it? Really. It's simple. Just wake up one day, think 'Oh! I'm in love with my best friend!', tell her how you feel, she'll love you back, and you'll live happily ever after, and have little Enjy-children. Just like that. What could go wrong?"

Enjolras sighed. "Absolutely everything. Do you understand what it feels like to love someone who doesn't deserve you?"

Courfeyrac cocked an eyebrow questioningly. "Doesn't deserve you?"

"Look, Éponine Thénardier is too good for me. I'm not enough for her, not up to par with what her standards should be, - not what they are, considering she's in love with the biggest moron on the planet - but, she can do so much better than me."

"And why is that? I have to admit, most people would think that YOU'RE too good for HER, not the other way around."

"She could have any man on the planet - some rich, sexy businessman, or whatever the likes are. Why would she go for me? I'm just some lame political science student that happens to possibly be in like with her. She deserves so much more than what I've got. So much more."

"But do you WANT her to have someone other than you?"

"No! Seeing her with some other guy would kill me! It would only confirm what I already know."

"And what's that?"

"That she'll never love me like I want to love her."

"That's very Ed Sheeran of you."

"What? I was just stating the truth!"

"Never mind that. Okay, you know what? Wait it out, and see how it goes. If Éponine looks like she's over Marius, and she's not chasing some other dude-" Courfeyrac paused to watch Enjolras internally fuming at that thought, and continued, "Then tell her how you feel, and then it's up to her to decide how she feels."

"How do I do that? It's not like I'm just going to go up to her and say 'Hi, I know I'm your best friend and all that, but I really want to be your boyfriend, so can we just go and fall in love now? Okay, thanks!' And walk away."

"I don't know. You're smart enough, you'll find a way."

"Not in the women department. I almost died when she just looked at me last night. I wanted to puke, in a really good way. Like, I'm sounding so incredibly cheesy right now, but I seriously feel like a gorilla is doing backflips in my gut or something when she just goes near me. I can't keep this up anymore. It's killing me."

Courfeyrac chuckled. "Gorillas doing backflips in your gut? That's odd. Most people describe it as 'butterflies in your stomach', not the former. But that certainly was interesting. Anyways, glad you've finally realized that Ép is the love of your life. Now go get 'em, tiger!" He said, patting Enjolras on the back as he walked away.

Enjolras groaned loudly, slamming his forehead against the table. Courfeyrac was right, Enjolras was in love with his best friend, Éponine Louise Thénardier.

He was really, truly screwed.

**A/N: Am I speeding the story too quickly? I just want to get this part of the story over and done with, so I can get onto the more MAJOR plot twists - except for I don't know what they'll be yet. Whatever. Remember to review, comments are always appreciated!**

**Xo, Daisy**


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